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tabling member printed

Steve McCabe

max answer › question first answered

2019-07-15T15:51:24.083Z

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To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18
June 2019 to Question 263677, for what reason the letter sent to a universal credit
claimant’s journal to confirm an advance payment does not specify the (a) amount to
be repaid each month or (b) number of months that the repayments will last; and if
he will add that information to that letter.

<p>The Department encourages all Universal Credit claimants to actively consider how
best to manage their personal budget, with additional advice and support available
from work coaches and case managers. When an advance payment is appropriate, claimants
decide what percentage of their expected monthly award to apply for and over what
period to repay it, up to a maximum of 12 monthly instalments.</p><p>Claimants have
the ability to make the decision for themselves on the time period for repayment.
Most claimants (around 85%) choose to repay their advance over a 12-month period,
with others repaying in a shorter timeframe.</p><p>The Department has taken a number
of steps to ensure that advances meet the needs of claimants and that recovery arrangements
are personalised and reasonable. From October 2019 we are reducing the maximum rate
of deductions to 30 per cent and from October 2021 we are increasing the maximum recovery
period for advances from 12 to 16 months.</p><p>Claimants can view their Universal
Credit statement online to see how their award is calculated and a breakdown of what
deductions are being made.</p><p>We are committed to keeping all Universal Credit
services and processes, under review and will make improvements where necessary.</p>

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information her Department
holds on the extent to which fraudulent claims for universal credit have been made
by people using a loophole in the online application process to make an application
and claim an advance using another person’s information.

<p>The Department is committed to bringing fraudsters to justice. Last year we, working
alongside local authorities, recovered more than £1.1bn in fraud and error across
all benefits and brought almost 5,000 prosecutions in 2017/18.</p><p> </p><p>As of
June 2019, the Department has received around 42,000 fraud referrals from staff relating
to potential fraudulent advance claims, which equates to less than 1 per cent of all
Universal Credit claims.</p><p> </p><p>Our investigations are ongoing and we are therefore
unable to provide details of how many may have used another person’s identity to make
their claim, or to quantify the amount spent on investigations of this type. However,
any cases in which this has occurred will be treated accordingly, with the continued
use of both prosecutions and tough financial penalties to deter this fraudulent behaviour.</p><p>
</p>

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department
holds on how much has been spent on investigating fraudulent universal credit claims
that have been made by people using a loophole in the online application process to
make an application and claim an advance using another person’s information.

<p>The Department is committed to bringing fraudsters to justice. Last year we, working
alongside local authorities, recovered more than £1.1bn in fraud and error across
all benefits and brought almost 5,000 prosecutions in 2017/18.</p><p> </p><p>As of
June 2019, the Department has received around 42,000 fraud referrals from staff relating
to potential fraudulent advance claims, which equates to less than 1 per cent of all
Universal Credit claims.</p><p> </p><p>Our investigations are ongoing and we are therefore
unable to provide details of how many may have used another person’s identity to make
their claim, or to quantify the amount spent on investigations of this type. However,
any cases in which this has occurred will be treated accordingly, with the continued
use of both prosecutions and tough financial penalties to deter this fraudulent behaviour.</p><p>
</p>

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information her Department
holds on the proportion of successful universal credit claims which are fraudulent;
and how that figure compares to legacy benefits.

<p>Under Universal Credit (UC) claimants will only have one claim to benefit, whereas
under Legacy, they may have made claims to multiple benefits. It is therefore not
possible to draw a direct comparison between the caseloads of UC and Legacy benefits.
UC will also incorporate Tax Credits which is currently administered by Her Majesty’s
Revenue and Customs, who record their overpayments differently.</p><p> </p><p>The
Department is open and transparent about the cost of fraud and error in the benefit
system, publishing our National “Fraud and Error in the Benefit System” statistics
each year which detail the amount we estimate is lost to both fraud and error across
all benefits.</p><p> </p><p>Most welfare losses, across Government, arise from claimants
failing to report changes of circumstances, Universal Credit (UC) provides a single,
digital interface through which claimants can more easily report these changes. As
such, once UC is fully rolled out, we expect cross-welfare losses to fraud, error
and overpayments to be reduced by around £1 billion per year. UC also allows us to
adjust benefit entitlement in line with changing circumstances in real time. Internal
and external data matches are increasingly helping to inform benefit payments and
alerting staff to check for any undeclared changes in people’s circumstances.</p><p
/><p>As of June 2019, the Department has received around 42,000 fraud referrals from
staff relating to potential fraudulent advance claims, which equates to less than
1 per cent of all Universal Credit claims.</p>

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to merge the allowances
for non-medical, equipment and general support for disabled students’ allowance to
permit more flexibility in how that allowance may be spent by undergraduate students.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that
the specification of laptops supplied to students with vision impairment through the
disabled students’ allowance is updated allow updating of necessary software over
the duration of degree programme.

<p>The department is currently reviewing the specification of equipment provided to
visually impaired students, to ensure that it remains fit for purpose throughout the
duration of students’ courses.</p><p> </p><p>Students that experience issues with
their equipment are advised to contact their assessment centre or Student Finance
England so that these issues can be considered and rectified.</p>

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 24
June to Question 266642, for what reasons her Department holds information on the
number of universal credit claimants with an existing advance who also receive a maximum
budgetary advance and have offered to repay that advance over the maximum time period
allowed but does not hold information on the proportion of those people who have repaid
their budget advance within the pre-agreed time period.

<p>The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur
disproportionate cost. The Department does collect information on advances paid and
repayments for all advances through the Universal Credit award. However, each advance’s
repayment progress would need to be tracked separately and a date in which repayment
is completed would need to be calculated.</p><p><strong> </strong></p>

<p>Universal Credit payments are made at a household rather than individual level.
The official Households on Universal Credit statistics series starts in August 2015
and the latest month that has been published so far is February 2019.</p><p> </p><p>2,600,000
households on Universal Credit received at least one payment between August 2015 and
February 2019.</p><p> </p><p>Notes:</p><p> </p><p>1) Figures have been rounded to
nearest 100,000.</p><p>2) Figures relate to both Universal Credit full service and
Universal Credit live service.</p><p>3) If a household has a Managed Payment to Landlord
in place, then some or all of their Universal Credit payment may have been paid directly
to the landlord.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p />

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 20
June 2019 to Question 266646, what recourse is available to a member of a joint claim
whose partner has falsely confirmed that their partner knows and agrees to a universal
credit advance.

<p>Advances are in place to ensure those in genuine need are able to receive financial
support. They are not additional money: they are simply an advance of entitlement.</p><p>
</p><p>Either member of a couple can apply for an advance payment on behalf of the
couple. Since both claimants have a joint and individual liability for the repayment
of the advance, they are given written notice at the time of taking out the advance,
via their Universal Credit (UC) journal, which includes the amount of the advance
and of their liability to repay the advance. They will also be alerted to this UC
Journal entry.</p>

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 24
June 2019 to Question 266647 on Universal Credit, for what reason his Department does
not hold data on the number of claimants of universal credit that were refused an
advance during the that period.

<p>Information on advances refused is not held in a format that is readily accessible.
To identify and collate the total number of applications refused for an advance would
incur disproportionate cost to the Department.</p>